Ana Swanson and Tripp Mickle
Ana Swanson covers trade, and Tripp Mickle reports on technology.
The president signaled he would discuss the sale of Nvidia’s Blackwell chips in a summit on Thursday, a move U.S. officials warned would be a “massive” national security mistake.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, at the company’s conference in Washington on Tuesday.Credit...Eric Lee for The New York Times
As President Trump flew to South Korea on Wednesday to prepare for a summit with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, he made some remarks that set off alarm bells among Washington officials concerned about America’s rivalry with China.
“We’ll be speaking about Blackwell,” Mr. Trump said of his meeting with Mr. Xi, referring to the most advanced artificial intelligence chip from the U.S. chipmaker Nvidia. Mr. Trump called the technology a “super duper chip”; complimented Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang; and declared, “We’re about 10 years ahead of anybody else in chips.”
Mr. Trump’s comments signaled a major potential change for U.S. policy that many Washington officials warn poses a national security risk. Selling such advanced A.I. chips to China is currently banned, and U.S. officials have worked for years to restrain Beijing’s access to the cutting-edge technology.
The president’s reversal, if it comes to pass, would have widespread implications. Nvidia, which has emphasized the importance of maintaining access to the Chinese market, would reap new sales. But critics have argued that A.I. technology is important enough to potentially shift the balance of power in a strategic competition between the United States and China.
On Wednesday, speculation that the Trump administration may imminently approve the sale of those chips to China mobilized opposition from critics inside and outside the White House and in Congress.
Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said on CNN that the reports “alarmed” him.
“The defining fight of the 21st century will be who controls artificial intelligence,” he said. “It would be a tragic mistake for President Trump, in order to get some soybean orders out of China, to sell them these critical cutting-edge A.I. chips.”
In an interview, R. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China from 2021 to 2025 and now a Harvard professor, said he hoped the Trump administration would “hold the line” on U.S. tech sales to China, calling them “a massive mistake.”
The People’s Liberation Army of China wants to dislodge the United States, and sees technology as key to doing that, Mr. Burns said. Chinese laws also require companies to share technology and information with the government if asked.
If the Chinese military became stronger by better adapting technology over the next decade, the consequences for the United States and allies like Japan, South Korea and India could be dire. Any gains for American companies from selling into China would most likely be “very short-lived,” Mr. Burns said, since the Chinese government wants to become self-sufficient in chip technology, as it has in other industries.
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